The Washington Wild Things earned their first home series sweep of the 2015 season with a 5-2 victory over the Lake Erie Crushers on Thursday evening at CONSOL Energy Park.
Like last night, the Wild Things (18-24) scored the first run of the game via their leadoff hitter when Daniel Poma started things off with a double to right.
C.J. Beatty moved him to third on a deep fly out to right and Scott Kalamar manufactured the run with a ground out to second.
It was the only run Washington plated against Lake Erie starter Brad Duffy (4-2) through four innings as he allowed only two hits from innings 2-4.
Duffy wouldn’t keep that trend, though, as Washington would break the game open in the fifth.
Maxx Garrett singled with one and Duffy hit Poma to end his night after 70 pitches. Crushers reliever Kolby Moore then walked C.J. Beatty to load the bases and Kalamar topped off his 4-RBI night with a bases-clearing double to make it 4-0.
David Popkins added another Wild Things run in the sixth with a solo home run to right — his third in six at bats and 11th of the season — to make it 5-0.
“[Popkins] has a big swing. He can play this game,” said Bozzuto. “He was swinging at balls low and in the dirt early in the season, but now he’s seeing balls and strikes better and seeing the pitches up better.”
Lake Erie (15-24) couldn’t do much against Washington starter Kyle Helisek (4-2) as the lefty threw 7.1 innings allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out eight.
“Kyle did a great job extending his outing into the seventh,” said Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto. “It felt good. Another starter going deep into the game to help the bullpen.”
When the Crushers did have chances to get back into the game they found a way to run themselves out of it.
In the second inning, Anderson Hidalgo led the inning off with a single to right. What Hidalgo didn’t see as he took his rather large turn around first was a sprinting Garrett behind him who took the throw from Helisek in right and applied the tag for the out.
“That situation happened last week when Maxx was catching,” said Bozzuto. “The guy rounded first like that and Maxx told Kalamar that in a future situation like that, if the runner is aggressive rounding first, to throw it to him and the two remembered that from last week and threw the guy out.”
Lake Erie again had a chance to make some noise trailing 5-2 in the ninth against Jonathan Kountis when Austin Prott singled to start the inning and Trevor Stevens followed with a walk.
Leadoff hitter Juan Sanchez then hit a sharp line drive out to Poma in center, who made the easy catch. Prott didn’t see the catch and thought the ball had dropped allowing Poma to double him up easily for the second out of the inning.
The base running error was followed by a single, but Kountis struck out first basemen Emmanuel Quiles to lock up his second save of the season and a series-sweep of the Crushers for the first time in Washington’s history.
The win also assures Washington’s first ever season series victory over Lake Erie and extends the team’s win streak to four.
The Wild Things will look for their fifth in-a-row Friday evening at 7:05 against the Joliet Slammers.
Starters Lines
(WAS) Helisek (W, 4-2): 7.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K’s. 108 Pitches (72 Strikes).
(LE) Duffy (L, 4-2): 4.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s, 1 HBP, 1 WP. 70 Pitches (47 Strikes).
(Photo Credit: Washington Wild Things)
